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Comment by norseboar | Hacker News Reader

I've read all of the Stanford 183 notes that Blake Masters took, but not the book that just came out. Have any of you read both? Did you think the book was worth it if you already have the notes?

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I read both. Class notes were more in-depth, had entertaining anecdotes but I found Zero To One to be more clear and concise explanation of Peter Thiel's thesis.

The diagrams are MUCH better in Zero To One - the class notes had slightly unwieldy prose to convey the same concepts without using diagrams at times.

All that said, I preferred the class notes. Reading Zero To One I personally felt I didn't get much from it that wasn't in the original notes. I find it a little surprising that it took a whole 18 months to have a rehash of the notes released.

Have any of you read both? Did you think the book was worth it if you already have the notes?

Yes and yes: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2014/09/24/zero-to-one-peter-t...

The class notes, in my opinion, are better. You certainly don't need to read both.

Why did you find them better?

I liked the class notes better. Zero to One seems to target people who want the more important ideas in a denser format. Reading the book was a nice refresher two years after the notes, but not much in there is new.

I read it both. If you enjoy notes a lot, reading book might sense, but don't except tons of new stuff.

It is mostly written in a bit better structure and targets more general audience than class notes.